The early 2000's were the years I was in high school. Straight after the milenium, I turned  13 and the world was a totally different place. Full of futuristic awe, disconnected from technology unless you were sat at an actual computer, on dial up internet. The nostaglia I have for those days is insane. Phones were wild and everything was just fun. If I could relive 1998 to 2006 I wouldn't hesitate!

When my friend Cat approached me with essentially a 00's inspired shoot I absolutely jumped on the idea. Cat was actually born until about 2006 so she missed out on all of it and didn't get to experience it first-hand. I'm so disappointed for her. But this gave me a chance to be intentionally loose with the technique side of things. As a technical photographer and someone who likes to edit quite cleanly too, this was going to be a little bit of effort to give into. But it's shoot scope and personal growth!

Our inspo was pretty basic, a few wide-angle lens shots, a few stylised shots, and a few outfit shots. Nothing too heavy. Besides, I was planning on using my memory of the naughties and the things that stood out to me as concepts.

Cat wanted to use silver emergency blankets as a backdrop. These are flimsy, but the studio had a couple of V flats I pinned them to. I placed them behind Cat in a V shape to create a silver faux wall to add a little depth and subtle reflection.

Remembering how everything had a cyber silver and blue feel back then I knew I'd lean into the blues for the shoot. I grabbed a subtle blue gel and placed on a strobe shot into a white 90cm umbrella. I didn't want a big soft light. I wanted crisp and punchy. I could have gone with a silver umbrella but this was just a fill. I also intentionally lazily placed the gel on the light, allowing white light to spill and wash out the gel too.

My key light was a bare AD300 with the reflector removed for a hard and crisp main light. I intentionally set this to a higher power than I would usually to overexpose the shot.

Here's a lighting diagram for the shots. I ended up dropping my shutter speed to around 1/20th or 1/10th for more ambient light and subtle blurring

As lighting and shooting go, this was really simple. The concept was king and I feel like we got some 00's vibes going on with these. I crudely played with Photoshop for some shots for a little extra zest. Back then, if we could bevel, emboss, drop shadow, and inner glow something, you can guarantee we would be doing just that. The Photoshop job on those shots felt awkward to do and to leave looking bad but that was the point. Bad Photoshop was everywhere back then.

I can imagine a tonne of people won't like them but I don't even care. It was refreshing to actively get shots that weren't technically perfect and just focus on the fun of shooting. I see many other big photographers doing soft shots, blurs etc and they make the art look so effortless. The art of photography is a major goal for me this year. Focus less on technical aspects and connect more with art. This was a really fun experiment in just that!

Cat 00's

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